1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to essential oils extracted from botanical matter which are treated with Fehlings solution to remove harsh flavor notes therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Essential oils which are freshly distilled from botanical matter ususally have, when freshly made, what are known as harsh tasting flavor notes. These harsh flavor off-notes are also known as green, burnt still off-notes. This is particularly true in the case of peppermint oil or spearmint oil which is freshly made by means of steam distillation of the parent botanical matter from which the oil is extracted. The customary procedure employed for removing those harsh flavor notes which are present in the freshly obtained oil is to allow the oil to age or mellow for periods of about 6 to 24 months, in full containers in the presence of oxygen and in the absence of actinic radiation. This aging-mellowing process is economically unattractive since it requires the use of carefully monitored storage facilities, for long periods of time and supervised by technically trained personnel. All of these storage requirements are economically burdensome.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,864 discloses the treatment of freshly prepared peppermint oil with maleic anhydride for the purposes of preventing the formation of certain off flavor notes during the aging process. This process removes most of the menthofuran from the fresh peppermint oil, in the form of a menthofuran-maleic anhydride complex. Thus, very little menthofuran is present, during the aging process, to oxidize to produce undesirable flavor notes. This process, however, does not cure all the off-flavor note problems inherent in fresh peppermint oil. An essential oil treated by the process of U.S. Pat. No. 4,478,864 may still have to undergo an aging process to remove off-flavor notes that are present in the freshly prepared oil.
Prior to the present invention, therefore, it has not been possible to treat freshly made essential oils in a facile manner so as to readily remove therefrom harsh flavor off-notes then present therein with a reagent that can be readily removed from the oil.